Improvement in billiard-table cushions



1 1.. E. BOYLE.

Billiard-Tablefiushions.

'No.1 54,743.f Patented Sept.8,1874.,-

Witnesss, I v Inventof.

% A flz/vjz Q UNITED STATES PATEELQEFJQE'.

JAMES E. BOYLE, OF BROOKLYN, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TO GEORGE E. PHELAN, OF NEW YORK, N.

IMPROVEMENT IN BILLIARD-TABLE CUSHIONS.

Specification formingpart of Letters Patent No. 154,743, dated September 8, 1874; application filed February 13, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES E. BOYLE, of the city of Brooklyn, Kings county, and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Billiard-Table Cushions; and I do hereby declare the following description and accompanyin g drawings are sufiicient to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it relates to make and use my said invention or improvement.

The strip of steel or other suitable material inserted in and near the edge of the cushion of a billiard-table, for the purpose of increasing the rebound and improving the elastic qualities of the cushion, has been heretofore uniformly inserted in such manner that the face or surface of the steel strip shall be parallel, or nearly parallel, with the lateral face of the cushion, and so that the ball shall strike against it upon its side. The objection to this method of inserting the steel strip in the cushion is that, unless there be provided an openin g or air-chamber in the cushion and in rear of the steel strip, the elastic quality of the rubber of the cushion is destroyed or impaired.

My improvement is intended to remedy the defect above indicated Without the use of the air chamber or opening in the cushion, and also to furnish a more certain and reliable combination of the forces of the steel strip with the rubber of the. cushion.

In all cushions the upper surface is or should be inclined slightly toward the bedof the table, and when the steel strip is inserted in the cushion with its widest surface parallel with the top of the cushion, as shown in the accompanying drawings, the blow of the ball will be received by the cushion in such manner as to equalize the reacting forces of the steel strip and the rubber without impairing the elastic quality of either by the combination.

There being no tension of the steel strip in my improved cushion, itmay be used on pockettables as Well as carom-tables, or tables without pockets. The rebound of the ball from my improved cushion is the result of a blow affecting a longer space of the steel strip than in the old method of inserting the steel strip on the lateral face of the cushion.

In order more fully to describe my invention, reference is had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification, and which is atransverse section of a side of a tab1e,-showing my improvement.

A is the bed of a billiard-table. Bis a sectional view of the india-rubber cushion, adj usted to the rail of the table in the usual manner. 0 is a strip or thin piece of steel of uniform width,which is inserted in the cushion its whole length, near its upper surface, and about an eighth of an inch from its edge, the widest surface of the steel strip being parallel with the upper surface of the cushion.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The arrangement in the cushion of a billiardtable of the steel strip inserted in said cushion, near to and parallel with its upper surface,

, substantially as described.

J. E. BOYLE.

Witnesses:

JOHN S. BERRY, Gr. L. ISHAM. 

